FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT COOLING CENTERS - PAGE 4

Chicagoans who wanted a real summer are going to get it this weekend, when temperatures hit the mid-90s. The heat will be accompanied by two Chicago outdoor traditions: the Lollapalooza music festival and the Bud Billiken Parade, both of which attract large crowds. The heat index might climb to 105 on Saturday and Sunday, weather watchers say. Though such heat and humidity are not unusual for this time of year, similar weather has been rare this summer. The last time the Chicago area hit 90-plus degrees was more than six weeks ago. Since then, weather has been downright balmy with only a handful of days warming to the mid-80s.

By Steven L. Forman, Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences University of Illinois at Chicago | September 12, 1999

As summer cools to fall, it is sobering to recount that more than 110 people perished in Cook County from excessive heat in July and August. Fortunately these fatalities are considerably less than the more than 730 casualties from the drought of 1995. This improvement reflects increased societal awareness of the dangers of heat waves, particularly with the establishment of cooling centers by the City of Chicago. But more needs to be done. Deaths from hot and humid weather, a given for Chicago summers, are totally avoidable.

As this summer's hottest temperatures linger into the weekend, the National Weather Service has issued a heat watch, and officials are encouraging checks on senior citizens and others vulnerable to the heat. "I know what this heat can do--kill," said Otta Henderson, 72, whose mother died on a hot summer day in 1997 after the air-conditioner broke in her one-bedroom apartment. Now when temperatures rise, Henderson checks on other North Side seniors, many who live alone. City officials, meanwhile, held a news conference Friday to update the public on the heat emergency plan that was implemented after the torrid summer of 1995, when more than 600 people died from heat-related causes in Cook County.

As scorching daytime temperatures in the 90s were poised to remain in place throughout the weekend and two heat-related deaths were reported in Chicago Friday, experts said relatively cool overnights could stave off a medical disaster such as the one four years ago that was linked to 700 deaths. With Friday registering a daytime high of 94 degrees and a broiling heat index of 103 before late afternoon thunderstorms brought some temporary relief, the National Weather Service extended its excessive-heat warning.

Lying still in a darkened bedroom Sunday morning, Rose Czoty tried to keep cool. Nearly eight hours had passed since the hum of her window air-conditioning unit went silent, when the power went out on a block of bungalows lining North Neva Avenue in Chicago's Montclare neighborhood. For Czoty, who has multiple sclerosis, the hot, thick air was aggravating her symptoms, making the heat wave even more unbearable. "I'm just worried about my medication in the fridge," said Czoty, 47. "It's $2,000 just for a month's prescription.

Carmelo Vargas dodged bullets for two years and achieved the rank of sergeant during the Vietnam War. It took Chicago's heat wave to turn him into a general. With forecasters predicting a heat index as high as 110 degrees Sunday, Vargas awoke Saturday to the task of leading yet another offensive in the city's war against the weather. "I haven't had a day off since July 11," said Vargas, director of the Emergency Services Division within the city's Department of Human Services.

Marguerite Bolden didn't wait Tuesday for government officials to come up with an emergency heat plan to combat Chicago's fourth straight day of 90-degree temperatures. She fled her ovenlike 21st-floor warren--straw hat on her head--as fast as her motorized scooter could make it to the elevator. Bolden didn't stop until she caught up with the cool breeze outside the Chicago Housing Authority's Sullivan Senior Apartments, 1633 W. Madison St. "It's pretty hot up there," said Bolden, 72, draped in a sunflower muumuu.

It was the heat and the humidity--and by the time he was halfway through a double shift making well-being checks across Chicago on Sunday, Sohail Shekha was feeling it. "Today is the first day in my American life that I felt too hot. I'm from Pakistan, and it's hotter than Pakistan today," said Shekha, 40, a Chicago Department of Human Services staffer who spent most of his day on the South Side visiting senior citizens. On a day when the official high temperature at O'Hare nudged 102 degrees and the heat index said it felt like 109--and when Midway hit 104 degrees, the hottest temperatures since the deadly heat wave of 1995--people across the city and suburbs just weathered the weather.

With temperatures forecast to climb into the mid-90s, Chicago will implement the city's heat emergency plan Wednesday for the third time this summer. Commonwealth Edison on Tuesday broke its record for peak power usage as air conditioners were cranked up throughout the Chicago area, and the National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for Wednesday and Thursday. The weather service issues a warning when the heat index--which factors temperature and humidity--is forecast during a 24-hour period to be 105 or above during the day and 80 or above at night.